Sisterly Affection
by loch.ness.princess
Summary: Rosalie cannot stand the idea of having someone as mutilated as Jasper joining her perfect family, much less pretending to be her biological brother. When she goes hunting with him and things take a violent turn, will the final nail be put in the coffin?
1. New Arrivals

Rosalie pulled up the Cullens' long gravel driveway, her new purse in the passenger seat. The thrill of a good day of shopping was wearing off, and she was getting hungry. She was also irritated that Emmet had been gone for nearly a week. She missed him.

A beautiful sight greeted her when she pulled into the driveway. Emmett's enormous off-road Jeep, which he had painted a bright cherry red in a fit of spontaneity, was outside the house. Why hadn't he parked it inside the garage?

He was probably in too much of a hurry to see her to bother parking. Rosalie quickly fluffed her hair in the rearview mirror, just in case.

She swung her car around and attempted to park it in the garage, but found her way blocked by all of Edward's things. Her mood soured. They must have not bothered to park because they wanted to play a practical joke on her. The idiots. Why did she put up with them, anyways?

Rosalie yanked her new purse off of the seat next to her and stepped out into the rainy dusk. Brilliant—now her purse was getting wet! Those two would be getting quite the talking-to when she got to them. She dashed up the steps and pulled the door open sharply.

Everyone stared at her as though they had seen a ghost. They were all sitting around the coffee table, looking preoccupied—and, in Edward's case, a little irritated. Rosalie stared back at them.

"What?" she demanded. "So I got another purse, so what?"

"It's cute, Rosalie," said a high-pitched soprano from somewhere in an armchair. Rosalie looked down and discovered that she had overlooked a very small, delicate-looking girl with spiky black hair that swam around her head in a bizarre halo. Her eyes were almost completely diluted into gold, but a bit of the red tinge still lingered, casting an orange tint to her irises.

She smiled at Rosalie. "I'm Alice," she said prettily.

"Hi," Rosalie said shortly, shutting the door behind me. "Are you passing through?"

"Nope," she said, popping her lips on the "P." "I'm here to stay."

Carlisle cleared his throat. "Rosalie, you might want to sit down. We seem to have a bit of a situation on our hands."

Rosalie stripped off her jacket and hung it, along with her purse, on the hooks by the door. "Why are all of Edward's things in the garage?" she asked. She kicked off her shoes and moved across the room towards Emmett, who laughed.

"Alice moved all his stuff in there," he explained as she sat next to him. "She wanted the room with the best view." He kissed her cheek. "Welcome home, Rosie."

Rosalie smiled at him and then went back to business. "What's she doing here?"

"Alice has premonitions," Carlisle explained, a little awkwardly. Alice nodded at him encouragingly. "She apparently saw them joining our family. We have been discussing it at some length and have decided to let them stay—if," he added hastily, "that's alright with you, of course."

Rosalie looked at Alice and then scanned the room critically. Her family looked back at her hopefully.

"'They?'" she asked suspiciously. "I only see one newcomer."

"The other one is Alice's mate, Jasper," Carlisle explained.

"Where is he?" Rosalie demanded carelessly. Not that she really cared. "Does he have any talents?"

Everyone exchanged glances.

"He's in the kitchen," Edward said. "And yes, he appears to be very talented."

Rosalie was suspicious of the way that Edward said Italented/I. "What can he do?"

"He can sense peoples' emotions," Alice piped up, "and manipulate them. He's very powerful," she added, a tiny note of pride in her voice.

"What is wrong with everyone?" Rosalie asked impatiently. "Why is he hiding in the kitchen?"

"Rose, honey," Emmett said uncomfortably, "he's not a bad guy. Kinda quiet, really polite. Old-fashioned Southern manners. I'm sure he'll treat you well. You should have seen Esme swooning over him."

All the focus was momentarily directed to Esme, who looked a little flustered. "I wasn't swooning; I just think it's nice that he's so polite. It's all 'yes, sir,' this, and 'no, ma'am,' that, and 'I'd be much obliged' and 'can I help you?' He's really a sweet boy."

"What's wrong with all of you?" Rosalie demanded. "Why are you beating around the bush?" She looked at Edward, who looked back.

"They're right, Rosalie," he shrugged innocently. "Jasper is very polite. He's well-bred, and I'm sure he'll give you space—" he stopped talking abruptly as Rosalie stood up and flounced into the kitchen.

She pushed open the swinging door and looked around. A young man, about nineteen or so, leapt up from their unused dining room table and turned to face her.

"Hello, miss," he said politely, a thick Southern drawl saturating his speech. "You must be Rosalie. I'm Jasper Whitlock." He held out his hand to her. "It's very nice to meet you."

Rosalie stared at the outstretched hand, which was slightly deformed due to scarring. Her gaze travelled up Jasper's arm, which was a mess of badly-healed wounds, past the dirty t-shirt, to his face. Silently, she carefully surveyed his features. His face, like his arm, was covered in twisted scars. His blood-red eyes had slight almond shapes from the skin being pulled; his eyebrows had thin lines crossing through them, breaking up the lines. Although his left cheekbone had a smooth patch on it, the other one was so scarred that it barely passed for skin. Honey-colored hair fell gracefully around his face, but Rosalie still noted that someone had taken a bite out of his ear. Jasper smiled hopefully and stretched his hand out a little farther, and Rosalie noted that one half of his mouth did not lift as high as the other.

Rosalie set her jaw.

"Oh, hell no."


	2. Freak Show

**A/N: Thank you so much to those who reviewed. You are too generous :)**

As soon as the words left her lips, the rest of the family tumbled in though the door, all of them looking either concerned, or angry, or both. Jasper grimaced ruefully and lowered his hand.

Alice pushed past Rosalie and wrapped her arms tightly around Jasper's waist. "I'm sorry about that, Jazz," she murmured, burying her face in his shirt. "It's not your fault."

"Jasper was involved in a lot of territorial warfare, Rosalie," Emmett was explaining hastily. "Not by choice—he was a human soldier, but he was taken by a vampire to be in a newborn army—he only escaped about five years ago—"

"He gets really depressed when he eats humans," Edward was adding. "He told us some of his story, he's not inherently violent—Rosalie, he had to kill other vampires to survive—he doesn't pose any threat to us, I know what he's thinking, he wants to become a vegetarian—"

Rosalie turned on them both. "You expect me to be in the same family as _that_?" she screeched.

They both looked at her, a little wide-eyed.

"Er… what?" Emmett finally asked.

"Are you trying to tell me that you expect me to pretend that that… that _thing_ is my adopted brother? Are you crazy? No _way_ am I going to be seen with _that_!"

"Rosalie, Jasper," Carlisle said, "stand next to each other and face me."

Jasper gently loosed Alice's arms from around him and stood next to Rosalie, who wrinkled her nose and edged away.

Carlisle looked at Esme, who nodded.

"What?" Rosalie demanded. "What is it?"

"You and Jasper look very similar," Carlisle said, in the quiet voice that meant that he did not want any arguing. "Same height, same age, same hair color."

"What's your point?"

"The resemblance is too close for you two to be separate adoptees."

"What? _What_?" Rosalie's voice ripped though two octaves in her rage. "Now I have to be _related _to him?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" Esme asked dangerously.

"Um, hello," Rosalie said, gesturing to Jasper. "Can you not see what's wrong with this picture? I mean, look at me—" she gestured at her own perfect visage "—and then look at him."

"Humans can't see the scarring," Jasper said, clearly trying to figure out what her problem was. "To them, we look very similar."

"Part of his ear is missing!" Rosalie yelled indignantly. "Do you see part of my ear missing? I think not! He's disgusting! He's a _freak_!"

"He's your brother now," Esme said tartly, "so you'd better get used to the idea."

Rosalie clenched her teeth together. This was appalling. How could her parents make her take this monstrosity in as her brother? Her biological brother, at that! What would passing vampires think of the family when they saw Jasper?

"And another thing," Esme was saying, plowing past Rosalie's rage. "I want a general vote on this now—whose last name should they take?"

"If Jasper and Alice both become Cullens, that will make five of us who have given up our original last names," Edward mused aloud. "That seems a bit much… I think Rosalie and Jasper should take a separate last name, since they're the twins."

"Twins!" Rosalie wailed.

Esme nodded. "Alright, then. Which would be better—Jasper and Rosalie Whitlock, or Jasper and Rosalie Hale?"

"I am not taking his last name!" Rosalie shrieked. "It sounds like we're married!"

All eyes turned to Jasper, who said, "I'm fine with a new last name, ma'am," in a soft voice.

"Excellent," Carlisle said, clearly ignoring Rosalie. "So we now have Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale in our family."

Alice beamed. "I told you things would work out," she said, hugging Jasper tightly. Jasper chuckled and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"Thank you very much, sir," he said, nodding to Carlisle. "We're very grateful to y'all."

"And one more thing," Esme said. She walked over to Jasper and folded her arms. Then, she smiled broadly. "While I appreciate your good manners, this 'sir' and 'ma'am' business is going to stop now, you understand? From now on, please, just call us Carlisle and Esme."

"Yes, ma'am," Jasper said, nodding once. "I mean, Esme."

There was a warm but awkward silence for a few seconds; it was broken when Jasper looked at Rosalie out of the corner of his eye. She caught his glance, glared, and finally burst out, "Fine! But don't expect me to like him!" before storming out of the kitchen towards her bedroom.

"Aaah, don't mind Rosalie," Emmett said, smoothing over the uncomfortable feeling as best he could. "She's never been very good at adapting to changes… and she's very protective over the people she loves. I'm sure when she sees that you aren't a threat to us, she'll start to like you. You'll see, man. She'll come around."


	3. Cold Shoulders

**A/N: apologies for the slightly choppy flow in this chapter. Thanks again to those who left such kind reviews :)**

After three weeks, even Emmett had to admit that Rosalie's temper tantrum was long-lasting, even by her high standards. Jasper had tried to be friendly to her but, when he only got a cold shoulder for his efforts, he gave up and turned to growing acquainted with the rest of his new family instead. To Rosalie's fury, the rest of the family put forth a special effort to be welcoming, as though they were making up for her behavior. As though there was something to be made up _for_.

"What is your problem?" she screamed at Emmett one afternoon.

He had the gall to look puzzled. "Um… I don't know. What _is _my problem? What did I do now?"

"You know perfectly well what you did wrong," Rosalie snapped. She jabbed a finger at Jasper's half-opened bedroom door. Jasper and Alice's heads were poked around it to see what the fuss was about. They sighed in unison and smiled at each other, like they were sharing a private joke.

Emmett rolled his eyes so dramatically that his irises disappeared into the back of his head. "Oh," he said. "I'm _so_ sorry. I didn't realize that I was unable to _speak_ to Jasper. Please, Your _Majesty_, forgive my transgressions!"

"If he's going to play baseball tonight with us, don't expect me to show up!" Rosalie hissed. Emmett, in reply, threw himself further into overblown theatrics.

"Oh! Say it isn't so!" he wailed, grimacing in fake pain. "The absence of your esteemed company, Highness, is too much for mortal flesh to bear!"

"Shut up!" Rosalie stomped her foot angrily. It didn't make much of a sound because the carpeting was too thick, but it made a point.

Or not. Emmett dropped his melodramatic display and said, "Fortunately, _immortal_ flesh can live without your attitude. Actually, we're happier without it."

This stung Rosalie. Emmett usually felt that fighting with her was just too much work. She had grown so accustomed to getting her way that any reproach from her husband tended to cut her more deeply than it should.

She flounced down the stairs before Jasper could tell Emmett that her feelings had been hurt. When she reached their foot, she heard Emmett, Alice, and Jasper talking, not caring that she could hear every word.

"Sorry about her," Emmett was saying. _Sorry? _Rosalie screamed in her head. _Sorry for WHAT?_

"It's alright," Jasper conceded graciously. _In that stupid drawl_. Rosalie decided right then to never like a Southern accent again.

"Why do you put up with her, anyways?" Emmett asked. "I would have given up a long time ago."

"I have given up," Jasper said, laughing grimly. Alice joined in. _The mood ring and the Magic 8 Ball_, Rosalie groused_. Hooray! The circus is in town. No, even better—the circus had joined my family!_

"I've stopped bothering to watch her," she said. "I mean, it's been three weeks. If she was going to come around, she'd have done it by now."

They all sighed disgustedly. Rosalie didn't know whether to cry or kill them all.

"Anyways," Jasper said, in a businesslike tone, "I'm not going to lash out at her. Getting angry would be a bad response—it would confirm everything she thinks about me. Besides, yelling at women is impolite."

"Ever the gentleman," Alice said, and there was a grimace in her tone. "I guess I'll just have to beat her up, then."

"Normally, I'd defend her," Emmett muttered, "but I'm almost tempted to tell you to go for it. Someday she's going to have to realize that you two are here to stay."

At this, the last of Rosalie's anger collapsed. Even Emmett was turning against her. Why couldn't the rest of the family see that she was justified in her actions? Jasper would never fit in. Above all else, the Cullen family possessed a glossy perfection. Everything they did was controlled, coordinated, and flawless. Jasper would never, ever be able to carry that aura. It would really be better for everyone if he went back to Mexico to be with his own kind. He could be with the other power-hungry serial killers, and her family could go back to being _normal_.

— — —

A week later, the local elementary school announced that it was looking for volunteer teenagers to supervise a four-day craft camp for eight- to twelve-year-olds. Alice, having foreseen that it would rain the entire weekend without respite, begged Carlisle and Esme to let her go. They consented, provided that she take some of her siblings with her. Jasper, who had little control over his hunger, could not go. Edward and Emmett consented readily, looking forward to the five-hour drive that would allow them to better know their new sister. Rosalie could not decide which she would hate more: being trapped at home with Jasper, or being stuck with the three siblings who had decided that they liked Jasper.

In the end, she flipped a coin and stayed behind.

— — —

One afternoon, someone rapped gently on Rosalie's door. Rosalie tugged off her headphones and called, "Come in, unless you're Jasper, in which case go away."

Esme poked her head around the door. Rosalie felt a momentary flare of shame at her blatant admission that she still hated her new brother before quashing it. He was not her brother—and he was definitely not her twin.

"Hi, Esme," she said, sitting up on her bed. "What's the matter?"

Esme came into Rosalie's bedroom, her small feet sinking deep into the white carpeting. She shut the door behind her with a sharp _click_ and leaned back against it, looking strained.

"Rosalie, I have a favor to ask you."

"What is it?" Rosalie asked suspiciously.

"Will you tell me why you don't like Jasper?"

"I just don't," Rosalie said sulkily.

"Rosalie, please," Esme begged. "Can't you tell me why?"

Rosalie shook her head. "I just don't like him," she muttered stubbornly. "He's ugly. He's a murderer. I don't want a murderer for a brother."

"He's not a murderer!" Esme protested. "He was a soldier—that's different. He killed in self-defense. You know he was drafted into Maria's army; you know he didn't want a part in it. You've seen him struggle to become like us."

"I know!" Rosalie snapped, self-defensive because she knew that Esme was right. Emmett's rebukes, though not very harsh, had set her thinking. She was being infantile. In fact, she was getting a little tired of constantly resenting Jasper's presence, especially since the rest of her family was getting fed up. But she just couldn't abandon her surly attitude now; it seemed that she had come too far to simply let it go. Everyone would think she was being weird if she suddenly started liking him.

"I just don't like him, okay?" she said, aggravated by Esme's crestfallen face.

"Will you at least go out hunting with him this afternoon?" she pleaded. "You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to. Please, Rosalie, it would mean so much to him if you would agree to do something with him. He's trying to be nice. Please, won't you reciprocate just once?" She looked so upset that Rosalie just had to give in.

"Okay, fine," she moaned. "I'll go. But only to make you happy."

Esme hugged her swiftly. "Thank you, Rosalie. I'll go tell him. Be ready in fifteen minutes, okay?"

Rosalie hugged her back reluctantly and let a small smile play at the corners of her mouth until Esme had left the room. Then she scowled and folded her arms across her chest. Why had Emmett gone to that stupid craft camp, anyways? If he had been at home he would have gone hunting with Jasper, and she wouldn't have had to agree to go in his stead just to please Esme. She was sure that Jasper was not any more desperate for her company than she was for his. It was all something that Esme had made up to make her feel guilty.

She continued to scowl as she changed out of her sweater into a t-shirt and pulled her masses of radiant blonde hair into a ponytail. Then she uncapped a bottle of scarlet nail polish and began to paint her nails at a painfully slow rate, hoping to stall. Unfortunately, she finished with ten minutes to spare and was left with no choice but to pull one of her many pairs of sneakers and go downstairs.

— — —

Rosalie flinched for two reasons when she stepped out of the back door and saw Jasper standing there. The first reason was the shock of his appearance; she doubted that she would ever get used to seeing the thick layers of scars that piled over Jasper's skin. He had thoughtfully pulled on a sweatshirt that was too large for him so that she could not see his hands.

The second reason for her flinching was the fact that her mood twitched upwards for a split second. She was certainly not pleased, meaning that Jasper had lost control of his power and accidentally made her mood lift. He was happy to see her in spite of her treatment of him.

She swept her guilt away quickly. There was no need to let him know that she might feel bad about how she was behaving. Besides, Esme had probably asked him to do that.

Then he smiled a bit, and Rosalie knew that Esme hadn't asked him to do anything.

"Let's go," she said brusquely, and began to run as fast as she could. Jasper matched her speed but maintained a respectful distance as they wove around the dense forest.


	4. Swallowtail Charm

**A/N: And now, for something completely unexpected (not)! Still, hope you all enjoy. Many thanks to those who reviewed.**

Rosalie's frustration egged her on, and, half an hour later, she realized that she had been running without any real direction. They had passed over a range of low hills and were now running alongside a lake that sported old felled trees and a rocky shore. Storm clouds were gathering to the east.

A scent caught her nose and she skidded to a halt, sending pebbles flying in a sharp arc. Something small and shiny was thrown up with the rocks. Jasper dashed to her side and caught the shining thing.

He, too, smelled the air. "Passerby," he said unnecessarily.

Rosalie tilted her head back and took a long, careful breath, smelling the trail. "Four or five, and the scents are fresh. That's odd. We mostly just get three at a time at the most." She looked over and saw that Jasper was frowning, turning the shiny object over in his mutilated fingers.

"What's with you?" she demanded crossly.

"Oh, it's probably nothing," Jasper said. He tossed the object to her. Rosalie caught it and examined it closely. It was a tiny silver charm in the shape of a swallowtail.

"What of it?" she asked carelessly.

"It's called a _milagro_," Jasper explained, shifting into Spanish with practiced ease. "Lucy had one like it. May I?" He held out his hand.

Rosalie twisted her fingers slightly as she threw the charm back, squashing the little bird into a formless lump. Jasper glared at her as he caught it.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Jasper rolled the lump of silver around on his palm and smelled it, searching for a scent. Then, he shrugged and tossed it into the lake.

"I thought you wanted it," Rosalie said, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I'm just being paranoid," Jasper said. "Maria always said that if I left, she would track me down. But there's no way that she would keep Lucy's charm, or think to leave it where I would find it. It's far too coincidental. It's nothing. Besides," he said, smiling grimly, "I don't have any use for a shapeless piece of silver. I might have wanted a charm in the shape of a swallowtail—but not a blob of metal."

Guilt flickered in Rosalie's stomach for about half a second. "It was an accident," she said sourly.

"Sure." Jasper laughed humorlessly and began to run again.

Rosalie followed him in silence, unsure of what to do. She had been pitching a fit for so long that she didn't quite know how else to behave; on the other hand, she felt genuinely guilty about squashing the charm. She knew that everyone's patience with her was running out; worse still was the fact that the other Cullens were starting to think that she would never change. People were starting to just accept her cold attitude—or, worse, ignore it. What was the point of having a three-week-long tantrum if people refused to sit up and take notice?

They jogged for about five miles, stopping only once for a pair of hapless deer, until they came to a small clearing overlooked by a low ridge and surrounded thickly by trees. It was here that Jasper stopped, looking disquieted.

"What?" Rosalie asked, irritated that they had stopped.

"I wish I hadn't thrown that _milagro_ in the lake," Jasper muttered, more to himself. "The trails are more distinct here." He closed his eyes and took a long breath.

Rosalie copied him. She could distinguish five separate trails—one smelling of lavender; one jasmine; one lilac; one an odd combination of sandalwood and lemongrass.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "So what?"

When he didn't answer, Rosalie felt a twinge of fear. Then she shook her head. She was being ridiculous.

"So what?" she asked, more forcefully.

"Do you smell the odd one? The one that isn't flowery?"

"Yes."

Jasper's scarlet eyes turned to her, and the fear in Rosalie's stomach exploded.

"That's your commander's scent, isn't it." It wasn't a question.

"Unless there's another vampire out there with the same scent," Jasper said. "But I've never encountered another, and I've met a lot of vampires."

"So… what do you think she's doing up here?" Rosalie asked casually.

"Well…" Jasper pulled a leaf off of a nearby bough and began to spin it between his fingertips pensively. "Maria never liked to leave her empire for fear of mutiny. But she always said that I was one of her most valuable assets, and that if I ever tired to leave she would stop me and bring me back, somehow or another… whatever it took to keep me with her, working for her, she would do it. She rarely expressed that kind of dedication to any of her officers—she even killed Nettie and Lucy… and if she's brought others with her, she probably thinks that she'll have to use force..."

"We have to get back and warn Carlisle and Esme!" Rosalie gasped. She turned on her heel, but Jasper caught her wrist.

"If we do that, we lead them to a pair of perfect hostages. I wouldn't be surprised if they've caught our scent and are heading towards us right now."

"We have to get out of here!" Rosalie snapped, trying to wrench her arm free.

"Rosalie, listen to me," Jasper said sharply. "You need to calm down and listen to me."

"I am not going to be bossed around by the local freak show, got that?" Rosalie hissed.

"Shut up!" Jasper snarled, shaking her so hard that her teeth rattled inside her head. Rosalie cowered at his expression and closed her mouth, watching him warily.

"I've seen a few of Maria's retrieval squads," Jasper said, a bit more gently. "There will be two newborns and one slightly older one; all of them are expendable. The newborns will be sent first; if they fail, then she will come with the more experienced one, first to negotiate and then to fight. We're obviously outnumbered, so I need you to do exactly as I say, you understand?"

"Let me go, you psychopath!" Rosalie snarled, tugging her arm.

"Remember the beach where we found the _milagro_?" Jasper said, not loosening his grip. "Go there and make a fire. Then come back immediately."

"A fire?" Rosalie stopped struggling to look at him in horror. "We're going to kill them?"

"It's a precaution," Jasper said shortly. "If we have to fight, we need to be able to dispose of them quickly." He released her arm and shoved her in the general direction of the beach. "Go."

"We don't even know that they're coming this way," Rosalie argued, not moving.

"They will. Go."

"Jasper—"

"_Go_." His expression was so murderous that Rosalie took off just to get away from him.


	5. Taking Orders

**A/N: thanks as always for the generous reviews ^^**

It only took Rosalie a matter of minutes to get back to the beach, which was deserted. She sniffed the air. Yes, they had come back this way. Maria was probably tracking them after all. The passerby –or, Rosalie amended, retrieval squad—must have caught their scents and taken a loop around to attack from the southeast.

Rosalie began to pick up pieces of driftwood and toss them into a pile. How dare Jasper order her around like that? Emmett would never have allowed that to happen. It wasn't fair. She was tempted to just leave Jasper to fend for himself. No, that would weigh on her conscience… and Alice would murder her.

She threw the final sticks onto the pile but did not bother to light it. Why should she? If Jasper wanted to kill other vampires so badly, he could do all of the work himself. She turned and ran back towards the clearing where Jasper was waiting.

She approached the clearing just in time to see a pretty vampire with thick, dark hair and brilliant red eyes spot Jasper and charge towards him, snarling. Jasper stood very still, allowing her to rush towards him. Then, at the last second, he shifted his weight to the side and turned his head towards her. His lips brushed her neck gracefully, and, the next think Rosalie knew, the girl's head was rolling in the grass, tangled in the dark waves of her hair.

Rosalie squeaked and covered her mouth with her hand. Was this really what Jasper was like—that he could decapitate a girl without so much as flinching? What was to say that he wouldn't do that to her family? Edward and Alice had a hope of winning a fight against him if they tapped into their powers. But Emmett—Emmett fought like a newborn. He would be dead in seconds. And what of Carlisle? What of Esme? They were too gentle to fight dust bunnies.

She watched silently as Jasper stooped to pick up the girl's head from the grass and pull her hair away from her face carefully, almost lovingly. He was humming to himself absently as he stood her body upright and carefully put her head back on her neck. Then, as she slowly reanimated, he pulled her wrists behind her so that she could not fight him and laid his lips at her throat. He was no longer humming, and, although Rosalie could not see his face clearly, she was quite sure that he was wearing his "fear me" expression.

The girl twisted her head wildly, looking around her. "What happened?"

"What's your name?" Jasper asked quietly. His Southern drawl, Rosalie noted with a shiver, was startlingly menacing.

"...Catherine."

"Well, Catherine, I just decapitated you. That's why your neck hurts so much—I bit your head off and then reattached it. And, if you don't cooperate, I'll tear your head back off and throw you in the fire."

Catherine flinched. "What do you want?"

"Why did you attack me?"

"I was told to."

"By whom?"

"I don't know."

"By whom, Catherine?" Jasper asked, his voice hardening. "Tell me who brought you here."

"Maria," Catherine said. "She brought me and Noah and Tyler."

"Why?"

Catherine did not respond.

"Why did she bring you here?" Jasper asked deliberately.

"I'm not supposed to say."

"Tell me anyways."

Catherine took a deep, shuddering breath. Instead of telling Jasper why they were there, she suddenly began to scream. "I've found him! I've found—" her voice abruptly died as Jasper's teeth sliced through her neck for the second time. He threw her body to the other side of the clearing and put a foot on top of Catherine's fallen head like it was a soccer ball, trapping it.

Jasper pulled off his sweatshirt and began to roll up the sleeves of his dress shirt, displaying a myriad of cruel-looking wounds. He opened the throat of the shirt, exposing thick scars across his throat and collarbone, and pushed his hair back from his face to better highlight the thinner scars that twisted his features in bizarre ways.

"What are you doing?" Rosalie asked, dazed.

"Putting the scars on display. They'll think twice about attacking me if they see how dangerous I am." Jasper picked up Catherine's head by the hair and tossed it to Rosalie. "Burn that and then get back here. I should be able to stall them until you get back."

Rosalie caught the head numbly. "You killed her," she said stupidly.

"Yes. Go put the head in the fire. We'll deal with the body later."

"What fire?"

"The fire that I told you to go make."

"There isn't a fire," Rosalie confessed blankly.

Jasper looked livid. "Why isn't there a fire?"

"Because… I didn't make one."

"Then go make one."

Rosalie tightened her grip on Catherine's head and took a step backwards. "I don't want to," she faltered, the fear of Jasper growing in her by the second.

"Listen, Hale," Jasper said, walking towards her aggressively. "If I tell you to make a fire, you make one. If I tell you to burn a head, you burn the head, you understand?"

"You can't order me around like that!" Rosalie protested, taking several more steps backwards.

"Can't I?" Jasper asked furiously, continuing to move towards her. The muscles in his arms and neck were tense with anger, causing the plethora of scars to ripple wildly. "When Emmett gets home he can fight me on your behalf. Right now, if you want to survive, you'll go make that fire."

"Are you threatening to kill me?" Rosalie wailed.

"I might have to, if they come and we have no way to burn them. Now do it!"

Rosalie turned and ran for all she was worth, still clutching Catherine's head.


	6. Old Friends

**A/N: thank you very much, as always, to everyone who reviewed. I don't deserve such great readers :)**

After frantically lighting the pile of driftwood on fire, Rosalie hurled Catherine's head into the flames as though the head itself was already blazing. This afternoon was not going as planned, and she was scared. Although she hated to admit it, her hostility towards Jasper had been largely out of fear—fear of his appearance, fear of his past, fear of what he was capable of and what he might do to her family. Rosalie was not terribly demonstrative in her affections towards her family, but they were all she had. She _could not_ allow anything to happen to them.

She heard snarling through the trees. Someone screamed, clearly in pain, and then everything fell silent. Rosalie jogged back to where Jasper was. When she was near, she slowed her pace to a fluid, cautious one, edging her way along.

There was a small ridge above the clearing. Rosalie lay on her stomach and peered out from below the undergrowth, not breathing for fear that someone might hear her.

Jasper had evidently killed the other newborn; there was a body lying to the side along with Catherine's; the new body was missing a few limbs as well as its head. One vampire, a tall man, had his teeth a few inches from Jasper's throat; the other, a petite woman with very long black hair and a multitude of scars, was addressing him.

"So," she was saying casually, as though they had just met on the street, "I've finally found you. I must say you made it difficult."

Jasper just glared at her, not moving an inch. Then, his eyes widened ever so slightly.

Maria–the dark-haired woman had to be Maria—noticed this and laughed. "What's the matter? Finding that your power doesn't work on Tyler?"

"No," Jasper said sullenly. He frowned, like he was concentrating.

"Tyler lost the majority of his emotions when he was changed," Maria said in a businesslike way. "No one knows why, but I must say it's useful. He's not a very good fighter yet—barely three years old—but he has no weakness. I'm tempted to say that he could become as good as you, someday."

Jasper stopped focusing and watched Maria warily. "Why are you here?"

Maria blinked at him innocently. "I just wanted to see you, silly."

"Yeah, right," Jasper snarled. He twisted his wrists inside Tyler's grasp. Tyler growled low in his throat.

"Tyler, stop that," Maria said sharply. "I don't care if he struggles a bit." She turned to look back at Jasper and her tone softened. "I want you back," she said simply. "Come back to Mexico with me, Jasper. We could control the whole country at the rate I'm going."

"No."

Maria scowled. "Why not?"

"I like it here," Jasper said darkly.

"Here?" Maria scoffed. "Are you telling me that wandering as a nomad is better than ruling an empire?"

"I'm not a nomad," Jasper said, a little proudly. "I live with my family and my wife."

"You live with your what? Oh, I understand. You've found a coven and a mate. You could bring them along if you like—although I can't say I'm thrilled at the idea of your mate being with us."

"No," Jasper said impatiently. "When I say 'family' and 'wife' I'm being serious. Besides, I'm a civilian now."

"In other words," Maria said, her eyes narrowing into tiny slits, "you've gone soft."

"I guess you could say that," he said simply. "Your lifestyle just doesn't work for me. Fighting over territory, preying on humans. I can't stand preying on humans."

"Are you saying that you've stopped eating?" Maria was puzzled.

"Sort of. I don't follow a traditional diet any more." Jasper was clearly enjoying keeping Maria in suspense.

"Then what do you eat?" she asked impatiently.

"Animals."

Maria looked horrified. "You eat _what_?"

"You know. Deer. Bears. Mountain lions. Animals."

Maria looked at him incredulously. Then, her round mouth fell open in a little "o" as her face stretched in pity. The expression looked a little fake to Rosalie.

"Oh, you poor thing," she breathed. She shook her head, and her long black hair swayed gently. "You've gone crazy."

It was Jasper's turn to look surprised; however, his expression was tinged by disgust. "Crazy? How am I crazy?"

Maria kept talking in a sappy, breathy voice that was probably supposed to be sympathetic. "I might have known this would happen," she said, reaching out to place a hand on Jasper's arm.

"Might have known that what would happen?" Jasper asked, impatiently shaking her hand off.

"They're preying on you, Jasper," Maria said, looking so sad that it was like she had pulled on a mask. _Everything about her is fake_, Rosalie thought disgustedly. _At least when_ I _have something injurious to say, I spit it out._

"I know that you were depressed in Mexico," Maria was continuing, "because you didn't like all the violence. All those battles, when you came back a wreck and it was so obvious that you wanted somebody to just kill you. And now, here you are, with a coven that says that it will teach you how to survive peacefully…" she sighed and looked at him with sad puppy-dog eyes. The effect was sort of spoiled by the fact that her eyes were an out-of-control crimson color. "There's no such thing as a pacifistic vampire. I would have thought you'd know that by now. These vampires that you're with, they aren't your family—they're your coven. Families are a human practice. You think you can go back to being a human by saying that you have a wife and a family."

Jasper threw back his head and laughed so loudly that it echoed a bit in Rosalie's sharp ears. It wasn't a happy laugh so much as a derisive one, perhaps a little forced.

He finally calmed down enough to choke out, "And you—you think I'm the crazy one!"

"What do you mean?" Maria had abandoned her stupid false sympathy for a cold, haughty attitude. She folded her arms and lifted her chin, as though she were insulted.

"First," Jasper said, still chuckling, "I have no desire to be human again. Second, as inconceivable as it may be, all the paperwork has been submitted. I actually am married, and my wife and I have been legally adopted into a family—by which I actually mean a family, with parents and siblings. Third, drinking animal blood has not affected my mental capabilities. And fourth, what do you care what happens to me? I'm not a soldier under you any more. I deserted."

"Well, I'm here to take you back," Maria said tartly.

Jasper's mirth vanished and he leaned forward in Tyler's grasp. When his face was about two inches from Maria's, he said, very slowly and deliberately, "I'm not coming back. Go home. I am not coming back to Mexico."

Maria's expression darkened into one of pure malice. "You _are_ coming back, Whitlock, and I'll carry you home in pieces if I have to."

"Give up." Jasper's expression did not change, but suddenly Maria was barking orders that did not seem right to Rosalie.

"Tyler!" she was snapping. "Let him go. We're leaving."

"You told me not to let him go," Tyler said, his voice almost a monotone. Rosalie surmised that this was the result of losing one's emotions.

"Do it now!"

"You said that if you began talking that way, he was influencing your emotions."

"Tyler, I'm warning you—"

"I'll just do as you told me, then."

Tyler did not release Jasper. Instead, he wrenched Jasper's left arm outwards and lowered his mouth to the shoulder joint. Rosalie heard fabric tearing under Tyler's teeth a split second before a scream flew from Jasper's mouth.

Rosalie stuffed a fist in her mouth to keep herself from shrieking as she watched Jasper's arm, half of it still covered in the sleeve of his dress shirt, fall to the ground. Maria, clearly no longer under Jasper's influence, applauded sarcastically.

"Well done, Tyler. And, Jasper, I would have thought you would have remembered not to contradict me, especially given all the times that I had to have your limbs severed. Tyler?"

Tyler let go of Jasper, picked up the fallen arm, and reattached it to the shoulder socket. Jasper was quicker to reanimate than Catherine had been; a split second after he had been put back together, he turned and sank his teeth into Tyler's upper arm. He did not sever the limb, but it was effective nonetheless. Tyler howled in pain, and Maria went in for the kill. Soon the three of them –Jasper, Tyler, and Maria—were locked in a fight that moved so quickly that even Rosalie, with her superior vision, could not follow it clearly.

One thing that was clear was that it was an unfair fight. Every time Jasper tried to even the odds by swaying Maria's emotions, Tyler would notice and inflict a wound deep enough to break Jasper's concentration. Rosalie bit her lower lip. This was just wrong—two against one. She should intervene. Jasper was her brother... sort of. No matter how much she didn't like it, he was part of her family. Sort of.

Rosalie didn't like it when people attacked her family.

Snarling, she launched herself over the bracken that she had been crouching beneath and tackled Tyler. Within seconds, she found herself trying desperately to defend herself against him. He was far more skilled than she; and, unlike her, he was not scared silly. Rosalie may have been his attacker, but it was all she could do to dodge him. She wasn't a fighter, for heaven's sake--she was an assasin. One-way combat was about all she was capable of.

From the corner of her eye, Rosalie saw that, unlike her, Jasper was not locked in an unfair fight. If anything, the he and Maria were too evenly matched; neither could gain the upper hand. Even though they both had numerous wounds, neither was severely weakened. Their stamina was incredible.

Tyler took advantage of Rosalie's momentary distraction and lunged at her. She almost managed to escape, but in her hurry to dodge him his teeth brushed along the side of her hand, breaking the skin. Rosalie screamed at the sudden, burning pain in her hand.


	7. Wounds

**A/N: hopefully I haven't misinterpreted how urgently vampire fragments need to be burned—if I have, I apologize profusely. Thank you, everyone, for putting up with my errors and being so generous in your reviews. :)**

Jasper heard Rosalie's screaming and acted swiftly. He ran to her side, slung an arm around her waist, and threw her into the trees, out of Tyler's way. Then, he fell to fighting Tyler. Rosalie, who had knocked over the tree that she had been thrown into, sat up in the pile of leaves and branches, clutching her hand as she watched the two of them fight. Out of the corner of her eye, she was aware that Maria was running away; why, she could not fathom. Things were to Maria's advantage, weren't they?

Although the overall fight was to their attackers' advantages, the individual one between Jasper and Tyler was not. Within seconds, Tyler lay dead at Jasper's feet. Jasper tensed, looking around wildly for Maria.

"Where'd she go?" he demanded harshly.

"I don't know," Rosalie said hastily, hoping that he wasn't going to start yelling at her again.

"Right," Jasper said. "C'mon, we need to burn these things."

Rosalie stared at him dimly, not comprehending. Jasper rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he grunted. "I'll take care of the head, and we'll do the rest later."

"Don't the pieces all need to be burned right away? So that they don't reassemble?"

"A body is no good without a head," Jasper said shortly. "If you want to help, go for it. Scream if you see Maria." He scooped up Tyler's head and ran towards the fire, muttering something blondes who had no combat skills, pain tolerance, or stamina. Rosalie sighed. Her brain just kept freezing up today. Whenever Jasper started barking orders, it was like she couldn't understand what he was saying.

A few minutes later, Jasper reappeared. He was running, but he did not move as smoothly as he normally did—there was a lot of limping and wincing involved. He saw that she had not moved from where she sat, nor had she stopped clutching her hand. His face softened as he walked over.

"Let me see your hand."

Rosalie held out her right hand to him, not daring to look him in the eye. Jasper knelt and took Rosalie's hand in his, inspecting the wound.

"Good news—it's not too deep."

"Too deep?"

"Sometimes a wound is so deep that it's better to just bite off the limb completely and reattach it," Jasper said matter-of-factly. He caught Rosalie's terrified look and softened his tone. "You've just got a scratch. You'll be fine. How much does it hurt?"

"It's not… so bad," Rosalie fibbed, embarrassed to have such a low pain threshold. Jasper probably thought she was being pathetic.

Wordlessly, Jasper brushed the pine needles off the dirt at his feet and picked up a handful of damp soil.

"What are you doing?" Rosalie asked nervously.

"Just putting some dirt in the wound," Jasper said. He gently rubbed the earth into the gash on Rosalie's hand. She winced a little.

"You're putting dirt in an open wound? Isn't that unsanitary?"

"It never hurt me," Jasper said. "The dirt will absorb most of the venom. We'll wash the rest out in the lake, okay?" He spoke so softly that Rosalie could barely believe that this was the same Jasper who had been fighting and yelling so viciously earlier.

Suddenly a thought struck her. "My ring," she murmured.

"What ring?"

"I had a ring on my pinky finger," Rosalie said distractedly. "It must have bitten it off. Emmett gave it to me."

"What does it look like?"

"A little gold one. With a garnet."

Jasper stood up and began to scan the grass. After a few minutes, he stooped and picked up a broken gold band.

"Here you go," he said, offering it to her.

Rosalie looked up at him, bewildered. Why was he being so nice to her when, forty-five minutes ago, he had been yelling at her? Did he like her or not? Granted, she had never given him much of a reason to like her; on the other hand, he had always tried to be nice in spite of her bad attitude. And hadn't he been pleased to see her when they had set out on their hunt?

Jasper sensed her confusion. "Look, Rosalie…"

"Yes?"

"I'm really sorry about this," Jasper said sincerely. "I'm sorry I scared you so badly. I'm sorry I yelled. I'm used to giving orders and having them obeyed; when you resisted, I started to panic."

"You panicked?" Rosalie asked incredulously. Panicking did not seem to be in Jasper's nature.

"You could have gotten us both killed," he said grimly.

Rosalie blinked. "By refusing to build a fire?"

"By refusing to follow orders," he said solemnly. "Things need to happen quickly and systematically in a fight, Rosalie. If one person refuses to cooperate, they endanger everyone. Although," he added, a little dryly, "it doesn't occur to me that you would have thought to cooperate with me in any situation if I hadn't intimidated you, what with you being oh-so-perfect and me being a 'freak show,' as you so kindly put it."

Rosalie nodded dumbly. She was planning on saying something that would make amends for the "freak show" comment, but her mouth clearly had other plans.

"Your shirt's all torn up," she said stupidly.

Jasper looked down at himself. His clothes had been filled with slashes, the left arm of his shirt had been torn off completely, and he had been moving so quickly that friction had torn holes in the soles of his sneakers. Rosalie could see the venom in the fresh wounds glittering in the weak sunlight.

He shrugged and pulled off his ruined shoes. "It happens," he said, tying the laces together to make them easier to carry.

Rosalie, still sitting in the pile of leaves and broken branches of the fallen tree, was aware that her mouth was hanging open a little. She snapped it shut and pulled a twig from her hair.

"Aren't you going to rub dirt into your wounds?" she asked, a little squeakily.

"Only the deepest two or three." Jasper scrubbed a handful of dirt into a particularly nasty-looking cut near his right shoulder, wincing. The moisture in the venom caused the dirt to clump, and it fell from the wound in small beads.

"Why not? Doesn't it hurt to leave the venom in?" Rosalie's voice was still high-pitched. _I sound like a chipmunk_, she thought. _Rosalie the Amazing Vampire Chipmunk. Very sophisticated. Hooray!_

"Yes," he said, "a little. But it's happened so much, I don't really notice it."

"Yes, you do," Rosalie argued. "I can see you limping and flinching whenever you move. And your arm—your arm was torn off!"

"It's nothing," Jasper growled, contradicting himself by grimacing as he absently rubbed a small cut at the base of his jaw. "Venom can be washed out. My arm will just be really sore for the next few hours. I'll be fine. I am fine."

"You're not fine! Stop pretending to be tough. I can see right through your act."

Jasper glared at her, his red eyes pinwheeling furiously. "I _am_ fine. This _is_ nothing. And I'm _not_ putting on any sort of act. The fighting, the killing, the fresh wounds, the old scars—none of it is an act. I am everything you think I am. Oh, yes," he added sarcastically, catching her expression. "I know how afraid you are of me. You pass it off as resentment, but this whole time you've been nothing but petrified. All your charming little comments—serial killer, ax murderer—they're accurate, aren't they?" He looked at her, daring her to say something to retaliate. Rosalie opened her mouth and then realized that she had nothing to say.

"So I try to prove you wrong. Every time you give me a decent reason to pull off your head, I step back and take it because I don't want to prove you right. Even now, I tried to be sympathetic, to not frighten you even more after you had seen me fight and kill as casually as if it were a game. But the damage has been done, hasn't it? So, what are your reactions?" He made a challenging gesture. "Go on. I'm just dying to know what you think of me now that everything you've worried about has been proven. Go on!"

Rosalie opened her mouth again, but she still had nothing to say. Jasper was right. Everything had been confirmed; she had been right all along. So where was her usual gloating feeling?

"Oh, and one more thing," Jasper spat. "If anyone's been putting on an act, it's you. You've been pretending to be so worried because I got hurt, but if you didn't want to see me injured, you would have bothered to intervene a little sooner. So, thanks for your concern, but you can just shut the hell up now."

Rosalie snapped her mouth shut. She had been hoping that Jasper would have been too distracted to realize that she had been watching the whole thing.

"Jasper—"

"Yes?" he asked coldly.

"I—I'm really sorry," Rosalie stammered. She was somewhere between shame and terror.

"I know," he said harshly. Then, his shoulders slumped a bit as he forced himself to bring his tone under control. "I know," he said again, after a pause. "I know exactly how you feel. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" Rosalie cried incredulously. "What have you got to be sorry for?"

"I shouldn't be taking everything out on you," he muttered. "You have a lot to be blamed for, but not in this case…" he looked at her wearily. "Look. I'm back to killing sentient creatures, my old commander is pursuing me, and I've just confirmed every suspicion that you've ever had about me. Oh, and I'm also in a lot of pain and I still have to deal with you. Call it a really bad day."

Rosalie swallowed and said, in a rather shaky voice, "I'm sorry I didn't jump in sooner, I just—"

"We need to burn these pieces," he interrupted, turning his back to her. "Help me gather them up."

Rosalie pocketed her ring and began to help him pick up the pieces of the dead vampires. "What do we do after we burn them? Go back home?"

"Yes. I don't doubt that Alice has seen all this and that the three of them are coming home as soon as they can. We'll talk to the rest of the family and try to figure out where Maria went."

Something cold settled in Rosalie's stomach. "What if Maria went back home?"

Jasper picked up the last remaining limb –an arm—and said, "I'll bet she would have come to an empty house. Alice will have seen her going towards Carlisle and Esme and called to warn them. C'mon, we really need to burn these things."

They ran back to the fire, which was dying for lack of supervision. Rosalie instantly dropped her pile of limbs and began to stoke the fire, trying to make up for not intervening sooner. Jasper knelt at the shore of the lake and began to throw water onto his latest wounds, trying to wash the venom out. This method was apparently ineffective, since soon he abandoned the splashing and dove into to the water, submerging himself for nearly ten minutes.


	8. Plan B

It was there that the other five Cullens found them. Alice and Emmett were the first ones in the clearing, both of them yelling as loudly as they could.

"I'm okay!" Rosalie shrieked, putting her hand behind her back before Emmett could see the tiny, shallow scar. Emmett, not noticing, pulled her into a hug that crushed her lungs painfully.

"Emmett—ow—I'm okay, I'm okay—" Over Emmett's shoulder, Rosalie could see Alice in near hysterics. She had doubtlessly seen Jasper's arm being bitten off.

Edward appeared at Rosalie's side and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Rosalie, is your hand alright?" he asked worriedly.

"Why, what happened to her hand?" Emmett growled.

Rosalie glared at Edward and held up her wounded hand. "I'm okay, really," she said. "It's just a scratch. He bit my ring off, see?" She pulled the ring from her pocket to show her brothers.

Emmett looked murderous. "Who bit your ring off?" His gaze shifted towards Jasper, who was busy calming Alice down. It didn't look as if he would succeed without using his power, but, because he knew that it irritated her to have her moods meddled with, he was making an effort.

"No!" Rosalie half-screamed. Everyone stopped gibbering excitedly to look at her. Had she been a human, Rosalie was sure that her face would be tomato-red by that point.

"I mean, no," she said, more quietly. "It was one named Tyler. I attacked him, but he was too skilled. It's really thanks to Jasper that I only lost my ring."

"Jasper, what happened to you?" Esme cried, looking almost as distraught as Alice.

Jasper seemed to realize what a mess he looked for the first time. Amazingly, he hung his head a little. "I'm sorry, Esme," he said. "I'm afraid I've been fighting... again." He swung the torn sneakers in his hand.

"Oh, stop it!" Rosalie burst out, surprising herself. Everyone else was surprised, too, if their stares were any basis for judgment.

"The only reason you're so messed up is because you had to jump in and save me," she continued. "If I hadn't tried to fight Tyler—"

"If you hadn't jumped in I would have lost more than my arm," Jasper countered, pinching the bridge of his nose. He clearly didn't want to go back to his outburst.

"You lost your arm?" Esme looked like she was about to lose it completely.

"I hadn't waited to intervene you wouldn't have lost your arm at all," Rosalie snarled, her guilt surfacing in the form of anger.

This comment silenced the group. Rosalie flinched as Alice and Edward shot her angry glares. Their extra senses had allowed them to know what she was referring to, and they did not approve of what they had seen and heard.

"What do you mean?" Carlisle finally asked.

"She means she just sat back while Tyler and Maria were attacking Jasper," Alice growled.

Everyone looked at Rosalie. She looked back for a moment but, finding that no one doubted Alice, hung her head in resignation.

"Yes, I… I was watching for a little bit. I hid."

"She let them bite his arm off," Alice said, her voice cracking in her anger.

"I jumped in after that," Rosalie said defensively.

"No, you jumped in after they both started attacking him and he couldn't fight back," Edward said.

"Stop that, both of you," Jasper broke in bitterly. "I scared her away, and she's not a fighter in the first place. So I had my arm bitten off. So what? It's not like that hasn't happened before." He put a hand to a gash in his side and set his jaw. "We can sort out the blame later. Right now we need to figure out what to do next."

Rosalie felt guilt settling deep in her stomach. Jasper should not have stopped Alice and Edward. She deserved all of their berating and more. She almost spoke up, but then decided against it. There were more important things to be done—such as making a plan B for dealing with Maria.

Esme ran a hand through her hair. "Would you two please give us a full explanation of what happened here? Don't leave anything out."

Jasper took a breath and began his report. "We were here when we caught the scent of four vampires. We ran north/northeast for about five miles until we came to a clearing with a small ridge on the south side. The trails were very strong there, so I sent Rosalie back here to make a fire. There were two newborns, Catherine and Noah; one three-year-old, Tyler, who had lost his emotions; and my old commander, Maria. We fought and all except Maria were killed and burned. We don't know where she went, but I imagine that she will be back; she said that she had come here to take me back to the South."

Alice made a choking noise. "Why does she want you back?"

"She always said I was one of her most valuable officers," Jasper shrugged. "Apparently she's on the verge of conquering the whole of Mexico. She wants me back on the team."

Alice looked like she was about to cry—or as close to crying as vampires could come. "But… I don't want to leave!"

Jasper's face softened as he pulled Alice into a hug. "We aren't going anywhere," he murmured.

"But… Maria…"

"But Maria what?"

Alice looked a little flustered and mumbled something indeterminate. Jasper chuckled.

"Alice, the woman just had my arm bitten off. Do you really think we were close? Do you really think I would go back with her, even if I could potentially control all of Mexico?"

Alice mumbled again and buried her face in Jasper's shirt. He rubbed her back in slow circles as he continued to address his family. "Anyways, that's my account. Rosalie, do you have anything to add?"

"Um, yeah. Jasper found a little bird-shaped charm by the lake, but he threw it into the water. I don't know if that matters."

"I don't think it's really relevant," Edward said. "It's far too coincidental. Maria just _happened_ to drop a charm that Jasper would recognize, knowing that he would find it? Unless she has a psychic with her, I don't think that's possible."

"You don't think she has a psychic, do you?" Jasper asked worriedly.

Edward shrugged. "Ask Alice."

"No," Alice said in a small voice, not lifting her head. "She mostly has regular vampires. She was counting on Tyler to weaken Jasper, but now that Tyler's dead she's going to stay back and try to figure out a plan B. She hasn't decided what she's going to do next."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know. She's… running through the trees. But she doesn't know where she's going except for away from here." Her volume dropped and she clung to Jasper even more tightly. "She's really angry that she didn't get Jasper."

"We'll deal with her," Emmett said firmly. "If she wants him this badly she's bound to come back. Alice can watch her and tell us what she's doing the minute she decides."

"What if she brings back a lot of vampires?" Edward asked suddenly. "What if she brings her whole army? Jasper would have to go, and even then they might kill us all."

"Her army is too big to travel anywhere," Jasper said, thinking aloud. "She could set out with fifteen or twenty newborns at the most, but she'd need officers to keep them under control... but if she brought too many skilled vampires with her, she'd be putting herself at the risk of mutiny. It's a long way from Mexico to here, and since she'd likely lose newborns along the way, I'd guess that she'd start out with… maybe thirty, tops."

"Even if we were fighters, we'd have no chance against thirty vampires," Rosalie murmured.

"Anyone can learn to fight," Jasper said darkly.

"Um, hello," Rosalie countered. "Do you really think Carlisle could decapitate anything sentient? He'd probably sit us all down for a group therapy session."

"Rosalie's right," Carlisle said, not seeming at all ashamed that he was overly compassionate. "We would all be killed, even if we did have the necessary skills."

"In that case, we'd have to intercept her on her way back to Mexico," Jasper said grimly. "But if she got a several-day head start, we might not be able to catch her… best to take the initiative and kill her before she gets there. We'll have to start tracking soon."

"Don't leave me," Alice gasped, looking panicked.

"Who here is a good tracker?" Jasper said, ignoring Alice.

Edward and Emmett looked at each other.

"None of us are all that great," Emmett said, "but Edward and I will come with you."

"You sure?"

"Why not?" Emmett, much to Rosalie's dismay, looked enthusiastic.

"Alright," Jasper said quickly, settling comfortably into the role of the military commander. "Emmett, Edward, and Alice will come with me to track down Maria. If she changes course, we'll call you."

"How?" Carlisle asked.

"We'll break into someone's house," Jasper said impatiently. "I don't know. We'll figure that out when we need to. In the meantime, I'd suggest that you call the Denali clan down so that the town is better protected. Should Maria start heading north with her miniature army, you should all disperse immediately—and that includes the Denalis, since their scents will be around the place. Swing south so that they intercept your scents before they reach the house, and then head east. Don't stop unless you absolutely need to, travel through water whenever you can to weaken your scents, and we'll meet you in…" he paused for a brief second, thinking, "Memphis. Outside the city hall—that's a nice, obvious place. Then we'll figure out what to do next. Got it?"

Everyone nodded solemnly. Rosalie felt her head begin to spin a little at the sudden influx of commands.

Jasper looked around. "If none of you are hungry, I think we'd better go now." He took Alice's hand. "We should be back within the week."

"Are you sure this is safe?" Esme cried, wringing her hands.

"Alice can see the future, Edward can read her mind, Emmett has the strength of a newborn, and I know every one of her moves. Maria's death is practically guaranteed." Jasper turned to Alice. "Which way is she headed?"

"South/southeast," Alice answered automatically, looking straight ahead with unfocused eyes. "Back towards Mexico. She'll be stopping for a snack within eight hours. We can probably catch her then."

Jasper jerked his head and, after a flurry of hasty goodbyes, the four trackers ran off as quickly as they could.

Esme bit her lip. "I don't like this," she said miserably. "It's just not safe."

"Jasper is very experienced," Carlisle said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "They shouldn't have any trouble."

"He's awfully quick to fight, isn't he?"

"You have no idea," Rosalie snorted. Her parents looked at her curiously.

"He decapitated the first newborn like _that_." Rosalie snapped her fingers impatiently. "And you don't even want to know how he reacted when I refused to follow his orders unquestioningly. He actually threatened to kill me."

"I'm sure he has his reasons for reacting like that," Carlisle said stubbornly. "In the meantime, if he's as violent as you say, you might not want to upset him."

"Whatever. You'd better call Irina." Rosalie turned on her heel and began to run back to the house.


	9. While Waiting

**A/N: the (slightly short) penultimate chapter. Thank you so much, everyone, for your wonderful reviews :)**

Kate, Tanya, and Irina arrived the next morning. Although the first few hours were tense, there were no phone calls from Alice, and the family slowly began to relax. After the first day, Carlisle decided to go back to work, but Rosalie refused to go to school.

Around midday on the second day of waiting, Rosalie was curled up in an armchair with a fashion magazine when Kate and Tanya came into the room, their golden eyes snapping excitedly.

"Hey, Rosalie!" Kate said merrily.

"Hi." Rosalie looked up from her magazine and smiled hopefully. "Any news?"

"No," Tanya said, settling gracefully into the chair opposite Rosalie's. "But no news is good news, right? They must still be on Maria's trail."

"I guess so," Rosalie said. "I just wish Emmett wasn't out there… Edward, Jasper, and Alice could have taken care of Maria without his help."

"Oh, that's right, you have two new siblings," Kate said eagerly. "So, tell us about them! What are they like?"

Rosalie snorted. "They're a freak show."

Tanya and Kate exchanged a glance. "So, you don't like them?" Tanya guessed.

"They're all right," Rosalie said uncomfortably. She hadn't meant to come on so strongly. "They're just weird. They both have powers. Alice can see the future, and Jasper can sense and manipulate emotions."

"Cool," Tanya said.

"Jasper spoils the little freak," Rosalie huffed. It was nice to have someone new to complain to. "I mean, they only just met, but it's like they've been married for a million years. It's not fair."

"Why not?"

Rosalie shrugged listlessly. "It just isn't."

"Sounds like someone's jealous," Kate commented.

"Jealous? Of them?" Rosalie laughed. "One of them is a tiny, hyperactive fortune-teller; the other is a maimed, violent mood ring who can't control his thirst—"

"Maimed?"

"Oh, that's right, you haven't seen Jasper," Rosalie said snidely. "Well, be sure you stick around to meet him."

Kate and Tanya looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"Okay, then," Tanya said. "We'll… just go see what Esme's up to." They rose gracefully and left the room.

Rosalie sank into her chair sulkily. She would have to make it up to Kate and Tanya later, and then, when Jasper and Alice came home, she would have to behave as if she really liked them so that the Denalis would think she had just been having a bad day. As much as she hated to admit it, neither of her new siblings were all that bad, and they had certainly been kind to her, even though she didn't deserve it. After roughly three and a half weeks of pitching a fit, Rosalie suddenly decided that enough was enough. Her hostility had only strengthened the family's good opinion of their newest members; neither Alice nor Jasper was going anywhere. It was time to work on accepting her new siblings.

Rosalie groaned and hid her face in her magazine. She _hated_ having to shelve her pride.

Sighing, Rosalie got to her feet and loped up the stairs. She carelessly flung her magazine into her bedroom and wandered to Jasper's door. It was closed. Although Alice had happily claimed the front room, forcing Edward into one of the guest rooms, Jasper had quietly taken the room at the end of the hall, commenting that the Cullens' smallest guest bedroom was far larger a space than he had had while in Mexico.

She turned the black knob and slowly pushed the door open. Like every other bedroom in their house, his was painted white, with white carpeting and a large window along one wall.

Rosalie walked softly into the room, looking around slowly. Jasper was scarily neat. His clothes were all hung up in the enormous half-open closet, and the oak desk was clutter-free, with the office supplies methodically arranged. Perhaps this was a side effect of being in the army for too long—Jasper's whole environment was tightly controlled, whereas Alice's looked like a tornado had recently passed through.

Rosalie moved to the enormous black bookshelf that was on the wall opposite the window and examined its alphabetized contents. Jasper was well-read; among his books were ones by Hemmingway, Kerouac, Shakespeare, Twain, and Vonnegut. Rosalie scanned the titles curiously. Interestingly enough, Jasper did not have any books that were set during the Civil War. She had been expecting to see _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ or _Gone With the Wind_ somewhere in his collection. Then, she realized that she should not have been surprised—after all, how many times had teachers told her that _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ was a melodramatic piece of pro-North propaganda, written by a woman who had never even been to the South? And how many times had she been told that _Gone With the Wind_ was only slightly more apologetic? She should know this after decades of English and history classes.

She quickly looked over the remainders of the books. There appeared to be every genre present except for war novels. If Jasper was so fond of classics, where was _All Quiet on the Western Front_? Where were _Johnny Got His Gun_ and _The Red Badge of Courage_? Carlisle and Esme readily supplied their children with money for whatever they wanted, so it could not be a lack of funding that prevented Jasper from buying the books.

Perhaps Jasper did not like to think about what he had missed as a human soldier. Or perhaps war novels in general were uncomfortable reminders.

Rosalie bit her lip. It had never occurred to her that Jasper might be bothered by his past. That he might be running away from more than just Maria and her army—that he might be trying to escape every facet of his previous life. That he might be… like her.

Several stacks of CDs dominated a few of the shelves, as well as masses of nonfiction books about history and philosophy. On one shelf, halfway up, there were four items: an old baseball, a Newton's cradle, a well-worn Confederate army hat, and a ratty yellow photograph in a plain black frame. Rosalie picked up the photograph to inspect it. It was a formal photograph of the Whitlock family. Although it was dirty and grainy, she could recognize Jasper standing at the back of the picture, dressed in a Confederate uniform. The photo must have been taken right at the beginning of the Civil War. It was in very bad condition—aside from the yellow fragility that came with age, someone had torn it into six pieces. That someone had probably not been Jasper, as the photograph had carefully taped back together.

Rosalie set the photo frame down hastily and stepped away from the bookshelf. She noted the glow-in-the-dark stars that had been stuck on the ceiling, the scraps of paper that had been taped to the side of the desk—cute little notes from Alice—and the map of the universe tacked up on the wall. Her brother was actually kind of interesting.

The thought startled her. Had she just mentally referred to Jasper as her brother?

…Yes. And Alice was her sister.

Rosalie was vaguely disturbed that these thoughts did not repulse her. Maybe this was what being accepting felt like. It was sort of a nice feeling, in a dorky way.

She walked out of Jasper's room, closing the door behind her, and went back downstairs. In the hallway, she met Esme, who was clutching a phone and smiling.

"Okay," she was saying. "Okay. See you soon. Bye." She hung up and smiled even more broadly. "They're coming home," she said unnecessarily.

"Maria?" Rosalie asked.

"Alice says she wasn't a problem." Esme turned her back to Rosalie, pulled the phone from its cradle, and dialed Carlisle's number.


	10. Attitude Check

**A/N: The last chapter, hopefully not too contrived or too abrupt. Once again, thank you all so much for your kind reviews, and an extra-exuberant "THANK YOU!" to those who, after finding my fic, left reviews after every single chapter. You all rock my socks.**

Edward, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper came home looking more or less as they had when they had left, much to everyone's relief. Rosalie had hovered anxiously by the living room windows until she saw them; as soon as Emmett had come into view she had practically ripped the door off its hinges while trying to get outside. Esme, Carlisle, and the Denalis had followed at a less impatient pace.

Emmett, who was in a phenomenally good mood, picked her up and spun her in circles. "Hey, Rosie!" he said. "You missed a good hunt there."

"It was pretty easy, actually," Edward corrected as he gave Esme a hug. "With Alice watching her every move, it was like following a bunch of arrows."

"What happened to Maria?" Esme asked tentatively.

"Dead," Edward said simply. "Not much of a fair fight, either."

"I would imagine not."

"It was so much worse than you could possibly imagine," Emmett groaned. "When we found her, we didn't even get to fight. Jasper just bit her head off and then we left."

"Very unsportsmanlike," Edward agreed.

"Who cares?" Alice asked belligerently.

"Alice had several disturbing visions along the way," Edward explained quietly. "She saw Maria bringing up about twenty-five vampires to kill the family, lay waste to the town, and take Jasper back to Mexico."

"She sounds… charming," Irina said dryly.

Emmett shook his head, grinning. "She was such a head case. It actually explains a lot—I mean, with her as a commander, it's no wonder that Jasper's so messed up."

The Denalis all flicked their gazes over to Jasper. He smiled tiredly, reading their emotions. They quickly looked away, embarrassed to be caught staring. The Cullens all laughed.

"It's surprisingly easy to get used to," Carlisle said lightly, diffusing the last of the tension.

"No doubt." Tanya laughed awkwardly.

"So there's really nothing to tell?" Kate asked, looking disappointed. "I was hoping for a good story."

"No, not much happened—" Edward began, but Alice interrupted him, saying, "That's a lie."

"Alright, then," Edward said, looking a little annoyed. "Tell them exactly what happened."

"Well," Alice said importantly, "we tracked Maria for a while. She must have known that we would follow, because she kept swerving all over the place instead of going straight to Mexico. About two days ago, we caught up with her in… was it Nevada? Yes, we were almost out of Nevada at the time."

"It was the worst fight ever," Emmett interjected. "All talking and no action. We surrounded Maria and she just stood there, smiling and batting her eyelashes."

"She kept behaving like her getting caught was all part of some grand master plan, and that we had fallen into her clever trap," Edward said, rolling his eyes at the memory. "It was so irritating."

"She thought I was Edward's mate," Alice said petulantly. "And, even worse, that Rosalie was married to Jasper."

"_What_?" Rosalie's pitch was something like a tin whistle's. "She thought _what_?"

"She assumed that he had been hunting with his wife when she intercepted them. I swear her eyes bulged out of her head when she found out that _I_ was his wife. Then she tried to cover it up by saying, 'Oh, I might have guessed. He always did prefer dark hair.' She was flicking her hair around like a complete idiot. Batting her eyelashes and pouting, and saying things like, 'I knew you'd come after me.'" Alice put on a high-pitched, nasally voice to play Maria.

"…And that's when Jasper went for her throat," Emmett said, rolling his eyes. "She dodged, grabbed Alice and tried to hold her hostage—"

"—Jasper made her feel terrified of me—"

"—she was released—"

"—Jasper made her feel really bored, so that she was lethargic—"

"—and bit her head off. The end." Emmett threw his hands up in exasperation. "I mean, talk about anticlimactic! The way Alice was behaving, I was thinking that we were going to be going into this huge fight, but no."

"Oh, well," Kate sighed. "I guess the good stories will just have to wait. But I'm sure you're all tired—if we aren't needed here any more, I think we'd better go home and let you all recuperate."

"Keep in touch," Carlisle said warmly. There was a flurry of goodbyes, and then the three Denalis ran towards the north. The family watched them go in silence.

"Well," Emmett finally said, rubbing his hands together with a slightly maniacal glint in his eye. "Maria's dead, the attack has been averted, and the family is safe and reunited. Who wants to start the fight?"

Everyone blinked at him, not understanding. Emmett sighed impatiently.

"Come on," he said. "We are the Cullen family. There is always a fight going on. It is what we do best. So, what'll it be this time? Someone took Alice's jacket? Someone breathed on Edward's piano? What petty squabble shall we start now?"

"Emmett," Rosalie protested, "we hardly ever fight. And when we do, it isn't over something as stupid as borrowing a jacket or… whatever…" Everyone was looking at her pointedly. Rosalie realized, too late, that Emmett had been hoping that she would oppose him. She had been tricked into making a hypocritical statement and was now cornered.

Well, she might as well take the opportunity to make her public apology. Rosalie gritted her teeth and began to edge into what she had really wanted to avoid.

"Okay… we may have a couple of cold shoulders in the family," she amended, stalling.

"Most of them yours," Jasper said shortly. Apparently, he had not quite forgiven her for staying back when he had needed her help. Even though she knew she deserved far worse, Rosalie chafed.

"I've decided to donate some to charity," she said snottily. Then she caught herself and amended her tone, trying to add a humorous edge to it. "Some of them are weeks old; I can't use them any more. Besides, I could stand to thaw out a little, don't you think?"

Suddenly, everyone was giving her a very odd look; it was some combination of amusement, shock, skepticism, and affection.

"Are you trying to say that you're going to have a better attitude?" Edward squinted at her incredulously.

"No," Rosalie said quickly, nettled at his disbelief. _C'mon, c'mon_, she was thinking. _Just two little words: _I'm sorry_. You can just mumble, and then tell everyone that you hadn't said _I'm sorry_, you had said_—

Edward, hearing her thoughts, laughed out loud in amazement.

"Shut up, Edward!"

"You're trying to apologize!" Edward sounded delighted.

"No, I'm not," Rosalie said automatically.

"Yes, you are."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Shut up!" Rosalie was half-screaming in her embarrassment. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Edward stopped talking, but his shoulders were shaking with silent laughter. Rosalie drew a long, slow breath that did not calm her down very much and tried again.

"I—" Rosalie stopped. Edward was still laughing. He met her gaze, and she saw that his eyes were dancing with mirth.

"Edward, stop it!" she snapped, folding her arms and glaring. Her stupid brother was making this a million times more difficult than it had to be. And she hadn't even gotten to apologize for herself yet.

"You haven't actually apologized yet," Edward said annoyingly, voicing her thoughts.

"God, you just can't resist telling the world what I'm thinking, can you?"

"I'm trying to resist getting a camera," he replied.

"Shut up! Why does everyone keep smiling?"

Everyone grinned at her stupidly. Rosalie felt her frustration threatening to permanently boil over.

"Forget it," she said impatiently. "Let's just carry on as normal."

"Let's not," Emmett said eagerly. "This is way more fun."

Rosalie shot him the death glare that she was so well-known for.

"As fun as this is," Alice said, smirking, "she's going to walk away in a huff in a minute. We'd better get this done with."

Edward, who was obviously still dying to speak Rosalie's mind for her, jumped in. "Alright. She wants to apologize for constantly giving our newest siblings the cold shoulder, and she also takes back her original comments about Alice being an escapee from a mental ward and Jasper being disgusting, sickening, hideous, freakish, deranged, an ax murderer, a sadomasochist, a meat grinder victim, an uninhibited serial killer, a chew toy for the massively disturbed, having an uncanny resemblance to a piece of meat that had been attacked by ravenous pit bulls—"

"Edward is going to shut up now," Rosalie announced imperiously.

Edward, clearly enjoying himself immensely, locked his lips and threw the imaginary key over his shoulder.

Aware that everyone was watching her eagerly, Rosalie took a deep breath, preparing to shelve her pride once and for all. _I'm sorry_, she chanted in her head. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can do this. I can do this_— and then she stopped. She just couldn't do it. She could not force the words off her tongue. So she took the path of least resistance instead.

"Don't think this means I like either of you," she said crossly. "I'm apologizing. That's all."

Jasper sighed. "Good enough, I guess."

"I especially don't like you, freak," Rosalie said, narrowing her eyes and rolling the word _freak_ out slowly, so that it sounded like _fuh-REEK_. "Don't start thinking you're my brother, or anything. I am not related to you. We just happen to be unfortunate enough to have to live in the same house."

Jasper, clearly sensing the sheepish frustration under her words, allowed a small, grossly lopsided smile to appear on his face. "Good enough," he repeated dryly as he casually shoved his hands into his pockets. "Just don't make the mistake of thinking that I like you, either… freak." He mimicked her pronunciation of _freak_, his accent making the word even more drawn-out.

"I'm not the freak here."

"Yes, you are. You're a rude, demanding, self-absorbed, domineering vampire. You're a freak."

Rosalie, unable to think of a good retort that would not seem overly bellicose, finally settled for saying, "Whatever."

Another silence descended upon them.

"You know what?" Emmett said suddenly. "I think we should just accept that we're all freaks and get over it."

"That was so cheesy," Alice grumbled. "Are we back in kindergarten? Do we get to celebrate our happy ending with cookies and lemonade?"

"No, but we do get to go to school tomorrow."

"We're off school tomorrow," Edward said quickly. "Teacher workday, remember?"

"Thank God." Rosalie rolled her eyes.

"Perfect!" Alice said, in a bright but sarcastic tone. "We can all strengthen our newfound tolerance of each other by playing Trivial Pursuit!"

Her siblings groaned.

"I was kidding!" she said in exasperation.

"I would hope so," Edward grumbled as a raindrop bounced off his nose.

"It's raining again?" Jasper complained. He looked up at the sky and a drop of water hit him in the eye.

"It always rains here," Emmett said. "You'd better get used to it."

"I miss Mexico," Jasper groused.

Alice glared. "You could have gone back if you really wanted to."

"Then I guess I didn't really want to." Jasper slid an arm around Alice's tiny shoulders and steered her into the house. They were followed by Edward and Esme, but Carlisle got into his car and pulled out of the driveway to go back to work.

Rosalie looked back at Emmett for a cue; did he want to go back into the house, or somewhere else? Emmett looked at her for a moment but did not speak.

"Do you want to go hunt?" Rosalie asked, a little confused that he was not moving.

"Not right now. I just got back from hunting, and it was pretty stressful, even if it was easy. Alice was flipping out the whole way. I'd rather make a giant house of cards or play chess, or some other quiet thing."

"Okay," Rosalie said. She was a tiny bit disappointed that Emmett did not want to go out; on the other hand, rain inevitably led to mud, and she hated being muddy. "I could go for a house of cards."

Emmett shifted his feet in the dampening earth. He wanted to say something, but he didn't want to annoy her further.

"Look," Rosalie sighed, running a hand through her hair, "I really am going to try to have a better attitude, I promise. Honest, I am. I just hate having to—"

"I… I'm really proud of you, Rose," Emmett interrupted awkwardly.

Rosalie smiled at him—not her usual perfunctory smile, but a real smile, an Alice-style smile. It was rare that Emmett complimented her on her actions or her character. Mostly, he just told her that she was beautiful—and, while that was usually enough, it made compliments on other things even more meaningful. "Really?"

"Yeah." Emmett shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders as the rain began to fall more heavily. "I know how much you hate apologizing." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye tentatively, and then he smiled back at her. "You done good, as they say."

"Thanks," Rosalie murmured. She pulled Emmett's hand out of his pocket and squeezed it warmly before walking up the steps to the house with him.


End file.
